Appearances are deceptive in Olympic Handball

By taking a look at the standings we might be tempted to think that the situation in group A and B is identical and that the leaders are favorites to win the Olympic gold. Both Iceland and Croatia have won all four games so far and will most likely win their groups, but there is more than meets the eye about these two squads.

Croatia is the team to beat in 2012 London Olympics

It was no accident that Croatia took an early lead and then expanded its advantage over Spain and Denmark, and we shouldn’t be surprised if they hand the Iberian nation another defeat in the group stage. The leaders want the four games by an average of nine points per match and their emphatic victory over second placed Denmark is the most impressive one. The reason we should pay attention to what happened in that fixture before betting on tonight’s event is that Spain struggled really hard against them. Losing by one point was not only frustrating but also highlighted Spain’s inconsistency in the offense.

Croatia doesn’t have such a problem and by scoring over 30 points in three of the group stage games, it should exploit fairly easy the numerous breaches that exist in Spain’s defense. Granted there is no reason to push any further, Croatian players are extremely proud and won’t settle with the second place in a group they’ve dominated so clearly. Bet365 is cautious and the odds of 1.71 prove this reluctance to bet against Spain, but punters shouldn’t be intimidated by this apparent balance between the two sides.

Iceland scraps one victory after another

The tiny island nation in the Atlantic Ocean can be very proud of what its handball Olympic team has achieved so far, but the players shouldn’t dwell on their success. Despite the fact that they are leading the group with four victories out of four games, the Icelandic athletes should remember the manner in which they won those games that mattered. Both Sweden and France were the sour losers who failed by a single point, and luck played a considerable part in Iceland’s victory.

In the elimination rounds, the current leaders will have a difficult mission unlike tonight when they will probably cruise to another comfortable victory over Great Britain. The hosts are yet to win a game and sadly for them they need to wait for the next Olympics to record a victory. The bookies don’t give them a chance tonight and even with a +6,5 Asian handicap it is simply too risky to bet on Great Britain. A better choice appears to be the under 60,5 bet at odds of 1.90 given the fact that the British team scored a total of 70 goals in all its four games.